Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland

Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests And Pawnee National Grassland Monitoring and Evaluation Report of the 1997 Revision of the Land and Resource Management Plan for Fiscal Year 2012 Table of Contents Forest Certification ............................................................................................................................ iii Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1 A brief overview of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Grassland Monitoring and Evaluation ................................................................................................................. 9 A review of the past fifteen years of monitoring by the Forest Monitoring and Evaluation Team Table 4.1 Minimum Legally Required Monitoring Activities Lands AdequatelyRestocked ................................................................................................................................ 10 Harvest Unit Size ................................................................................................................................................. 11 Control of Destructive Insects and Diseases ........................................................................................................ 11 Population Trends of Management Indicator Species .......................................................................................... 12 Effects of Off-Road Vehicles ............................................................................................................................... 17 Effects to Lands/Communities Adjacent/Near the Arapaho/Roosevelt/Pawnee .................................................. 20 Comparison of Projected and Actual Outputs and Services/Comparison of Estimated and Actual Costs ........... 20 Prescriptions and Effects/Effect of Management Practices ................................................................................. 24 Table 4.2 Forest Plan Monitoring Questions for Priority Management Emphasis and Stakeholder/Public Involvement. Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Health, Sustainability Successional - Structural Stages .......................................................................................................................... 28 Ecological Processes & Human Influences ......................................................................................................... 29 Old Growth .......................................................................................................................................................... 30 Threatened, Endangered, Sensitive Species ......................................................................................................... 31 Air Quality Related Values .................................................................................................................................. 31 Forest Emission Budget ....................................................................................................................................... 32 Functional Watersheds ......................................................................................................................................... 32 Ecological Land Units.......................................................................................................................................... 34 Stream Flows ....................................................................................................................................................... 34 Non-point Source Pollution ................................................................................................................................. 35 High Fire Hazard ................................................................................................................................................. 35 Human Uses Wilderness ........................................................................................................................................................... 36 Developed Recreation .......................................................................................................................................... 36 Dispersed Recreation ........................................................................................................................................... 37 Visitor Satisfaction .............................................................................................................................................. 38 Travel Management ............................................................................................................................................. 39 Land Uses and Ownership Boundary Management ........................................................................................................................................ 41 Special Uses and Ownership Adjustments ........................................................................................................... 42 Permit Review...................................................................................................................................................... 42 Public Involvement .............................................................................................................................................. 42 Emerging Issues and Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 43 List of Preparers ................................................................................................................................ 56 List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................................ 57 i ii Forest Certification The 1997 Revision of the Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan) provided goals and objectives to direct the future of resource management of the Forests and Grassland. The Forests and Grassland have completed the fifteenth season of implementing plan goals and objectives. Lessons learned from these fifteen years of monitoring and evaluation point how to better conduct interdisciplinary resource management and monitoring and evaluation of plan implementation by Forest and Grassland personnel. Monitoring and evaluation carried out by the Monitoring and Evaluation Team has resulted in no significant problems or reasons for change to the Revised Forest Management Plan at this time. GLENN P. CASAMASSA Forest Supervisor iii iv Introduction Location and History The Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests (ARNF) include 1.9 million acres of public land in the Rocky Mountains and foothills of north central Colorado. Boundaries extend north to the Wyoming border and south of Mt. Evans and Interstate-70. These two National Forests include lands on both sides of the Continental Divide. Topography on the forests varies from rolling hills to snow covered mountain peaks over 14,000’ in elevation. President Theodore Roosevelt established the Arapaho National Forest on July 1, 1908. It is named after the Native American tribe that occupied the region for summer hunting. Roosevelt National Forest originally began as a part of the Medicine Bow Forest Reserve, created in 1897. In 1910 portions of this reserve were renamed Colorado National Forest. Finally, in 1932 the Forest was renamed by President Herbert Hoover to honor President Theodore Roosevelt, the person who was the most responsible for its creation. The Pawnee National Grassland (PNG) includes 214,000 acres of primarily short-grass prairie in two units located approximately 30 miles east of Fort Collins, Colorado. Elevations range from 4,300 ft. on the prairie to 5,500 ft. at the summit of the Pawnee Buttes. The Pawnee National Grassland was transferred to the US Forest Service from the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in 1954. The SCS acquired this prairie during the dust bowl days of the 1930’s and was charged with its rehabilitation. It was designated a National Grassland in 1960. The Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland (ARP) are within a one- hour drive of the heavily populated Denver metropolitan area and the other heavily populated areas along the northern Front Range (Boulder, Ft. Collins, Longmont, Loveland and Greeley) and, therefore, are considered to be one of the fourteen Urban National Forests nation-wide. The landownership pattern of the ARP creates special challenges, with approximately 750,000 acres of small private parcels intermixed with federal lands. Fifteen Years of Forest Plan Implementation The ARP has made much progress in accomplishing Forest Plan objectives. Actual levels of accomplishment vary by programs due mainly to funding levels. When program budgets were low during these past fifteen years, staffing was reduced and projects were not implemented. The Forest Plan was optimistic in its funding predictions and, therefore, predictions for program objectives (Chapter 1, Forest Plan) were also overly optimistic. Some programs, though under-funded, have benefited from other well- funded projects. For example, the Wildlife Program is typically under-funded and wildlife habitat improvement acreage would have only increased in small increments. Yet, due to the increased funding to treat hazardous fuels, more acreage of wildlife habitat improvement has occurred than funding

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